Fulton Homes, one of the industry’s most tech-savvy homebuilding companies, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
According to the Arizona Republic, the Tempe, Ariz.-based company owes $100 million to $500 million to more than 100 creditors. Court documents show the company has assets between $100 million to $500 million.
The company was progressive in its attempts to sell technology amenities. Two years ago, it closed all its remote design centers and constructed a single 13,000-square-foot design center in an effort to boost amenity sales.
The design center included an entire area dedicated to home technology, which was staffed by Guardian Home Technologies, a unit of Guardian Protection Services in Warrendale, Pa., the No. 1 company on the CE Pro 100 in 2008.
In 2007, Fulton actually reported a 61 percent average increase in amenity sales per home using Builder Homesite's Envision online options selection system to sell more amenities.
According to the article, the company has 21 subdivisions in the Phoenix area, but pulled only 61 single-family building permits in 2008, including only two for the month of December. Back in 2005, the company sold 2,200 homes and in 2006 it sold 1,100 homes.
Several other tech-savvy builders have also recently filed for bankruptcy, including Village Homes, Kimball Hill Homes and Jim Walter Homes.